Interview with screenwriter/ director John Prescott

Budding screenwriter John Prescott and Blank Stage beat writer Ted Rubin got the chance to talk about John’s latest project, a short film called “Roman”. In small room in the artisan resource center, John arrived with a small briefcase full of new scripts.

John, you just finished your short film Roman for Campus Movie Fest. Walk us through this experience…

To get right down to it, I didn’t want to do Campus Movie Fest. I don’t like award shows or competition. I think to many people want to be in film for the wrong reasons. For me, I just want to write the stories that entertain me and an audience, then just give my stories to someone who I trust to bring them to life. As long as I can eat and survive I couldn’t careless about the bells and whistles but I’m in the film business so I know that I’m in a bit of pickle. To get answer your question, it feels great! Though, I am thoroughly exhausted right now but it’s uplifting to have people come up to you (especially professionals) and express how much they liked your piece.
But let me stress what I am about to say, I had a great cast and crew and with out them it wouldn’t be as good as it is. They are what makes a movie work.

“I didn’t want to do it!”

Now tell us a little bit about she short, “Roman” I hear this was originally written as a feature film?

As for the short I was kind of pushed into it by two people, Scott Sonnenberg and Jan Mullins. They picked at me until I waved my little white flag and started to search for what I wanted to do. I looked around and came across the feature to “Roman” which by my best explanation is, The Professional mixed with the tilted outlook of Dexter with a dash of cooking (pun intended). I took one of the very first scenes of the feature and molded it into the short, which bugged me cause as a short the scene didn’t seem to fit that model of beginning, middle and end but after seeing the end result it does have the inciting incident, the main character’s goal, the climax etc. So I’m pretty stoked to say the least on how it flows as a story. And now that we have the short in the can my main focus is to have “Roman” the feature get funding. Out of all my scripts that I’ve written “Roman” is my baby. It’s the one I want to see grow up because every writer puts a bit of themselves into what they write and “Roman” has the most of me in it, not the stone-cold killer part, mind you.

“Every writer puts a bit of themselves into what they write…”

The production value of the film was amazing and the performances were fantastic! Walk us through the process of production for us? What was casting like, getting locations, building a team, etc?

If there is one thing that I’ve learned in school is that people starting out in the film world don’t realize how much pre-pro helps out in production. With that said, I started about 2 months before CMF. For the crew, I went to the people who I knew were reliable, damn good at their jobs and were excited about the project and they gave me the 110% I was looking for. For the actors, I went to the one and only, Brent Brooks. He directed me to some of the best thespians I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. They all did a fantastic job, they carried their energy through out the long shoot day. We shot from 7a.m. to 9p.m. (not that unusual) in Rip Potter’s wood working studio and let me explain, Rip is a local set designer and set builder who was gracious enough to let us use his studio for our location and the look and feel turned out great!

“I went to the people who I knew were reliable, damn good at their jobs…”

You had the chance to work with Blank Stage on this, talk about your experience here…

With out Blank Stage I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this. It has been the resource hub that brought the elements of Roman together. I will continue to work with Blank Stage as long as they will have me! I have been to a few Blank Page screenwriting meetings and I would go to all of them if I had a car. Brent and his team create a very inspiring environment that is a little bit networking and a whole lotta coverage.

You are not only a Screenwriter but you are also a gaffer and grip on set. Has this helped you in your writing?

No, to be blunt. My thought process and motivations are COMPLETELY different when I’m doing one or the other. When I’m doing grip work, I’m thinking about where this ballast need to go and when I’m writing I am thinking about where this character’s worst fear should come into play.

We understand your plan to bring Roman through the “Blank PAGE” screenwriting process, talk us more about your plans for this and the future of “Roman”?

As a writer, you know when a piece you’ve been working on feels right and where the feature of Roman is at this point, it feels 100% right. But I’m ALWAYS eager to hear what people think of my work, so having it go through the Blank PAGE makes sense.

As for the feature, it’s simple, I want nothing more than to have it produced so people people can watch it and have fun, because having fun is what movies are about and I think a lot of people forget about that.

R O M A N